World Improve The Escape From Troms

INTRODUCTION

This has been on my mind since the quest first launched, but since it was kind of reworked with the new Troms, I think there could still be so much more done to it. It should be less of "Just a thing that happens for the story" and more of a serious danger that should be a notable part of the quest. Something that could actually kill you.


CURRENTLY

Currently the escape from Troms is quite simple, a fake guard tells you that you're being hunted, and you have to run down the path overlooking Troms while some slow weakish guard Golems spawn. You have to run by the barracks, where a few Human guards spawn, with some more Golems. You run past that, down past the City, where you talk to ???. You then escape the city through a tunnel.


This sounds fairly decent in concept, but is incredibly bland and forgettable in practice. Both guards are incredibly slow, especially if the player has any form of +Walkspeed gear. They don't need to be faced, they can be out-walked. They could do 10x more damage, and make barely any more impact, as they rarely ever get to hit the player. Due to their speed and low numbers, they are no challenge at all, and there is honestly a better chance the player dies in this segment by getting stuck and /killing than the guards ever doing anything.

ISSUE

This would not be as much of a problem as I am making it, if not Lore-wise, Troms is meant to be incredibly strong, well stocked, well defended, with a powerful army that could crush any opponent. This is even more solidified with the mass amount of guards in the regular Troms, with a powerful presence even outside Troms main walls, with cannons, guards, smaller walls, everything. There is honestly more friendly guards in regular Troms than there are hostile guards in "Lock-down Troms"

Think about that for a second. There is no excuse for the guards to be that lax. The ENTIRE CITY HAS BEEN LOCKED DOWN, with every citizen retreating into their homes. Again, a city wide lock-down for a single person, and the guards are only near the barracks, and there are maybe 20 of them in total, with like 5 Human guards. That's terrible.


RESOLUTION

This could be fixed by:

1. Changing the route the player takes to be more lengthy, allowing for more guard space, more unique opportunities for guards to attack the player, and a general better segment as the player needs to circumvent and defeat the Troms Elite Guards to escape the city they were once a citizen of.

2. Stronger / More Guards, as they current ones are slow, and even if they somehow hit you, not very strong. They can be taken down in 2 - 5 hits, and pose more intimidation than actual threat. The Guards would need at least a 2x speed boost, perhaps a little bit slower with the Golems, but that should be counteracted with a monumental buff to attack and health. The Humans should be much faster, and placed in better positions to almost guarantee an encounter with them, so the player can't just teleport/vanish/charge/just sprint honestly past them.

3. Different types of / more guards. There could be archers up in Towers that will very quickly fire arrows down at you, with increase follow-distance, of course. There could be Mages that actively heal Guards, or fire sprays of particles at you (Experience Orb textured projectiles, fired moderately quickly in sprays). There could be Arbalists (Someone who uses a crossbow, could be textured the Earth Bow) that could be archers on the floor, fire hard hitting arrows at a slower than usual rate, these could be perched on the Barracks walls, or on the wall you must run across to escape, forcing you to cut through them (Give them low HP) as you escape.

4. All of the above, which is what I hope for.




I'm imagining, picture the scene:
You leave the Kings Panic Room, and exit through a back exit of the castle. You encounter a Guard next to a locked gate. Fearful, as you were just told you would be hunted, you speak with him. He tells you he is not truly a guard, and that the whole city has been locked down. You're told to run, that you cannot face down Troms army. You leave the guard and sprint down the path. As you come away from the shadow of the castle, you hear a guard yell

"Hey! They're over here!"

As a hail of arrows rain down upon you from a tower, you hide behind a coulomb to take cover.
You must tread on however, and quickly escape the towers optimal range. Just as you begin the descent down the hill, a trio of Guard Golems are headed up the hill in your direction, spaced as to block your path, you must fight and weave around them in order to continue.

As you head into the small Barracks town, you're confronted with more shots from nearby towers, forcing you to hide beside a nearby house. You are spotted by some human guards, who charge you, forcing you to move from your shelter to face them. Just as you manage to dispatch the last guard, a volley of magic slams you against a wall. A Mage has emerged from the barracks.

"Stop there, you! Come with us or face lethal force!"

As the Mage says this, 6 more Human Guards emerge from the barracks, sprinting down the steps towards you. You combat the Soldiers while the mage fires at you, the mage retreating slightly whenever you come towards them. You finally manage to incapacitate the guards, and finish off the Mage. You climb up on top of a wall, where you are spotted by a crew of Arbalists, who are perched on a wall opposite you.
You run across your wall, getting shot at by the Arbalists, until you manage to get down, and begin your way to their wall. You are stopped by 3 Golems and a Mage, who follows the Golems around, constantly casting a healing spell, all while being shot at by the Crossbowmen. You are able to take somewhat cover behind some shopping stalls as you fight the Golems. Afterwards, you're finally able to scale the second wall, cutting through the frail Arbalists now that they are within striking range.

You finally descend from the Wall, where there is only 1 Tower shooting at you from within the town. You are thankfully able to take cover behind a rock, which is also covering a certain character, "???"

You can then escape through the tunnel.


That was just a little idea I cooked up, but you can clearly see the difference between this and what we have currently, and I hope you believe my updated version was in fact, an improvement.

CONCLUSION

This may not be the biggest thing, and some may say it's not worth editing Troms, or the quest just to add this little bit more challenge to an already difficult quest. I say to that, I don't care. I've been thinking about this since I did the quest. as I said, and I just wanted to put my ideas out there, doubtful they will be implemented. It's the little things for me, and for the escape from the most famous, well defended fortress in all of Wynns history to be a minor thing, didn't feel right.
The whole concept is amazing to me, and the fact that we hardly ever get to fight something like this, I think it should be something to be remembered, rather than something anyone with +30 Walkspeed can walk through.
Please vote on the poll if you support this suggestion, or if you have any criticism, please tag me in your response. Thank you, and goodbye!

-Tealy

 

Nice suggestion, but I’m quite sure the ’???’ is not Amadel

 

??? is Amadel in Wynn Ex C, so I would assume it's the same deal here.

 

That has nothing to do with it. Every time some unknown is speaking to you, he is called ’???’. I could be wrong though but based on the dialouges, it feels weird that that would be Amadel

 

I'm still pretty sure that the one ??? is Amadel.

 

Then he shouldn’t have said ”you must be so suprised to see me” when you enter the hideout. Also why is it ??? when it is someone you can recognize since you have met him before. The dialouges doesn’t make sense to me if that ’???’ guy is Amadel. Also how could he be there and then suddenly get to the traitor camp without telling you to bring the map fragments?

 

probably becouse he doesn't want to seem suspicious.
remember, Amadel was using us the whole time, everything we've ever done went according to his master plan.
I'd imagine him hiding in the Troms to get you out of the city and later on tell you to go find the hideout without telling you about the map fragments maybe had been done not raise suspicions.
He possibly didn't want you to immidiatly go look for the map fragments becouse at that time we were trying to escape troms, so it would seem weird if he suddenly demanded that you go look for some map pieces

 

Since I'm a sucker for immersion and lore, I totally agree with this. +1 from me!

 

Ok, good point, but iirc he isn’t hooded or anything so shouln’t you recognize him from site C?

 

let's be honest the character we're playing as isn't the brightest of fellows

 

What are you basing that on? 8)

 

you help an obvious criminal rob a vault in Jungle Fever
and then couple dozen levels later you help a dwarf rob some other vault

 

Let’s not forget how you understand ‘bring back my cows’ as ‘murder them and bring me their meat’ in Shadow of the Beast

 

also maybe we could count that part where you can't killl the leader of the Corkian Partisans when he's literally standing two blocks above you.

 

Good idea! +1 from me

 

He was so desensitized to killing that he was used to take care of to be kill.

 

Honestly this explanation is too convoluted
I highly doubt ??? is amadel, just because they were in WynnExcavation C. There are other ??? NPCs in other quest; Shattered Minds, all the dungeons AND dungeon quests, etc.

 

YES! This is what I’m talking about.

________________________________

And yes, the player maybe isn’t the brightest guy, but it’s like we do a quest but forgets why was the quest giver. Also remember that we (the players) is solving quite some puzzles. We should recognize the face of someone we’ve met before, right?

 

Bump
I'd love to hear more feedback on my idea.

 

This might be a little much, but maybe as you go through the tunnel, a single guard comes and tries to stop you but just collapses after 5 seconds of walking? I think this could be do-able, as they made people walk in some quests, but falling over might be a completely different story. Could be good for a laugh though! Also, maybe ??? could be hiding in the shadows and guiding you as you keep going? Like "Watch out, I hear Guard Golems coming." I think that would sell the show a little more to people who don't know the story and puppeteer-ism of WynnExcavation.